John P. Johnson/HBO Pop quiz: What's the hottest consumer tech startup to come out of Silicon Valley this year?

If you struggled to come up with an immediate answer for the next Facebook or Uber, you've identified the current climate in America's longtime capital of innovation.

Sure, there's plenty of money and brains in San Francisco. But in a place constantly looking for the next big thing, the lack of a new breakout gadget or app can be deeply unsettling. Some even wonder if Silicon Valley has become ... boring.

"Consumer tech has become popular culture, and in the US, popular culture is set in New York and Los Angeles, not in the Bay Area," says Jeremy Liew, a partner at Snapchat investor Lightspeed Ventures. "So I'd say that we're seeing a lot more consumer tech companies there than here."

So has Silicon Valley — birthplace of the iPhone and Google — lost the innovation crown? Has it become too expensive for young techies chasing the startup dream? Or is there a broader trend at play?

Business Insider checked in with six veteran tech investors for an update on the state of innovation in Silicon Valley and for their thoughts on the merits of the "boring" charge.